The Cross, and the Eternal Glory of God is our general theme, and
the burden of the word for this evening is related, I think, to the
whole syllabus; but at any rate starting with the emphasis on that
third section in the syllabus - "the Glory Post-Incarnate" - the
cross vindicated in the Resurrection and Ascension, I have also to
go on into the other, for this is the burden in these days - the
abiding manifestation of the Glory in the Church, the Body of
Christ.

There are seven manifestations of the Glory in the Word of God, and
we shall mention them because they are the basis of this meditation.
Seven times both in type and in that typified we are told of the
manifestation of the glory, or the glorification. These are as
follows:-

1. In the case of the Tabernacle as mentioned in the 40th chapter of
Exodus. When all things had been put in order and completed
according to the pattern in the mount, the Glory of the Lord filled
the House - filled the Tent.

2. The next is in the case of the Temple as recorded in 2 Chron. 7.
Again when all things had been set in order and made according to
the revelation of the pattern of the heavenlies, we read the Glory
of the Lord filled the House.

3. The third is in the 6th chapter of Isaiah. I saw the Lord high
and lifted up, His train filled the Temple. Here is a breaking
forth, a manifestation of the Glory, and still filling the House of
God, as over and upon and within that House of God, the glory was
revealed.

4. And then we come into the days of our Lord on the transfiguration
mount, as in Matthew 17, & there is a manifestation of the Glory
of Christ, a breaking forth, a glorification.

5. Then in His Ascension we read, (and it is interesting to notice
this word in the Book of the Acts in the first chapter. Three times
this phrase is mentioned - "Received up.") The Authorised Version
does not give the significance. It puts it in another way. But He
was received up, and received up into the Glory, and in that
connection you bring those words from the 24th Psalm: "Lift up your
heads O ye gates, and be ye lift up ye everlasting doors: and the
King of Glory shall come in." The King of Glory. Here is the
glorification in the Ascension, when the King of Glory enters into
His Glory.

6. And then at Pentecost, as in Acts 2, there is a manifestation of
this Glory in the Church. It is the glorified Christ coming in the
Person of the Holy Spirit and revealing and manifesting His Glory in
the midst of that spiritual counterpart of the Old Testament
Tabernacle and Temple, the Church, which is His Body. At Pentecost
He comes into His Temple suddenly, and there is a breaking forth of
His Glory. We shall see the nature of that breaking forth later as
the manifestation of His sovereignty over sin and death and all
flesh. "Thou hast given Him authority, or jurisdiction, over all
flesh" was His Word earlier, and you remember Joel's prophecy
concerning Pentecost. "I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh."
This is that, the manifestation of His sovereignty, His Glory,
within and upon and through this spiritual temple.

7. Then finally there is that ultimate, that consummation of the
Glory in the spiritual house as mentioned by Paul in 2 Thessalonians
chapter 1: "When He shall come to be glorified in His saints." Here
is the final consummate manifestation of His Glory in the Church, in
the Spiritual House, in His Body. His corporate Body.

Here then you have the sevenfold breaking forth of His Glory in
specific and definite manifestations and acts. But that does not
carry you very far until you begin to realise the connection of
these manifestations of Glory, and I would have you just note the
connections of these and the specific significance. They are mainly
revealed to us typically and that in two trios, and then you get the
one glorious isolated revelation of His Glory in that consummation -
and yet not isolated, because it is the consummation of a process
which is going on now until that time.

You notice in the Tabernacle the supreme characteristic and feature
is His mediatorial work. The Tabernacle has as its central
reality the system of sacrifice and priesthood in mediation, and
when this thing which is supremely a manifestation of mediatorial
priestly work in the behalf of sin and sinners is set up and
fulfilled according to the divine ordering, then the glory of the
Lord fills the tent: and here you have Christ mediatorially
glorified as the High Priest, and as the Altar and as the Sacrifice,
the glory of God resting upon and within His work as Mediator, here
so fully revealed in the Tabernacle: the glory of God, the glory of
Christ, is found within His atoning work, His mediatorial work as
Saviour, the One who deals with sin.

Do you notice that couplet which we have often mentioned in this
fellowship. It runs right through the Word of God uniting Grace and
Glory: "The Lord is a Sun and a Shield, He will give grace and
glory." The sun is the glory, but grace is the shield which makes it
possible for sinful man to dwell in the glory. If that full-orbed
glory of God were to blaze suddenly upon one of us here we should
die instantly. "No man hath seen God and lived." It is not possible
to stand in the full blaze of the glory of God unless you have
something to shield that glory, and the incarnation is the glory of
God shielded by grace, so that we can enter into the glory of God
without being consumed. You have often looked at the sunset and you
have said "How glorious." Now what is a sunset? It is simply the
rising of the mists of earth laying hold of the sun rays and
breaking them up so that the full blaze of the sun is arrested by
these mists of earth, and you look through the shield of mists and
see the glory of the sunset, which is simply the full blaze arrested
so that you can enjoy it, so that you can look at it in its varied
hues and shades. So He took our flesh; He was made in our likeness
in order that being one of us He might, yet being God, reveal to us
in grace the glory of God, so that we could enjoy it without being
consumed. He will give grace and glory.

The mediatorial work of grace, the atoning work, the work by reason
of His sacrifice, as He was the Lamb slain, as He was the mediator
for our sins, this is the grace of God in Christ by which the glory
is revealed; and, beloved, you can never understand the glory, or
know anything about the glory, until you have been led to the
apprehension of grace, and when you know the meaning of grace, then
you know the meaning of glory; and I think of all who ought to be
able to appreciate grace, we here ought to be able to appreciate it
the most. For has there not been disclosed to us the revelation of
the awfulness of flesh, the impossibility of flesh entering into the
presence of God. Have we not seen the flesh laid bare, exposed, and
have we not come to stand in horror and dread of anything that is
flesh? We loathe it! We know what havoc the devil can do if only he
can get hold of a little bit of flesh! So we have come to hate and
loathe and stand in fear of flesh; and with this revelation of the
awfulness, the impossibility of flesh, oh, how much we need the
grace of God to stand in His presence at all, all the while enduring
this exposure and knowledge of flesh, this awfulness. But that we
with this true knowledge (which is not a theory, but is to us a
daily agony before God, lest flesh should come in at all) can stand
and enjoy fellowship with the Lord, that is grace! And until you
understand grace by reason of what He has done on our behalf in
being made in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for flesh condemning
sin in the flesh, bearing it away Himself, until you appreciate
that, you cannot appreciate the glory. But when you understand that,
that is the glory, that to you is the glory of God.

I cannot define the glory of God now in other terms than grace.
Later on, we may be able to define it in other terms, but at present
the glory of God is the grace of God, His forbearance, His
longsuffering, His tenderness, His many mercies, the things that He
does for us, always what He is doing. The wonder of it all! The
upholding, the sustaining in the midst of the direst assaults and
most terrible pressure, yet there is that holding of us up all the
time, so that although we would give up all too readily, and shrink
back, He holds us and brings us through, and then He allows us the
honour, which we so often think of as being anything but an honour -
to be led into trouble - in order that the manifestation of His
grace might bring glory to Himself. This is the glory of God; and it
is all because of the mediatorial, atoning, representative and
substitutionary work of the Lord. When we understand grace, then the
glory of the Lord fills the house. You ask any sinner who has been
saved from the awful depths and reality of sin by the grace of God
if he knows anything of the glory of God! Why, it is in his face all
the time, and it ought to be in our faces all the time, we who know
the awfulness of the flesh. The Lord will give grace and glory.
These two things always go together, and so you find the first
manifestation of the glory of God is in that structure, the
Tabernacle, that presentation which speaks supremely of His grace,
the mediatorial aspect of the Saviour's life and work.

The next is in the Book of Chronicles, when you come to the Temple.
Has it struck you that it was not in the priestly so much as in the
monarchical, the kingly, that the glory is vested. It was a king who
built this temple; it was a king who dedicated this temple, it was a
king who was God's representative in this. The plan was still the
same plan, the pattern was still the same pattern as out from the
heavenlies. David got the pattern by revelation. It was still the
pattern of the things in the heavens, but this time the main feature
was the monarchical, the kingly, and then when this thing had been
finished according to the ordering of the Lord, and a king
representatively stood over it and handed it to the Lord and
represented the Lord before the people as the priest had done in the
other case, then the glory of the Lord filled the house. Here you
have the kingly aspect of the Christ, the sovereignty of the Lord
Jesus. We have no need to stay further to talk about it, we are
always talking about it. He is sovereign Lord, and we preach Jesus
Christ as Lord, and that He is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
"Lift up your heads O ye gates: be ye lifted up ye everlasting
doors, and the King of Glory shall come in. Who is this King of
Glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle,
He is King of Glory." On the ground of His tremendous conquest, on
the ground of His great triumph - as He trod the winepress alone, as
His garments were dyed red with the blood of His enemies, as He
travelling in the greatness of His strength by way of His cross
where He stripped off the principalities and powers, where He laid
low the powers which were against Him and triumphed gloriously - He
is the King of Glory. Upon the triumphant work of Christ as Lord and
King the glory of God rests.

Now the third is in that little passage in Isaiah; Isaiah is being
called to a prophetical work. He is the prophet of the Messiah, and
the words suspended in the air in the presence of the revelation
are: "Who will go for us?" and whom shall I send? Here is a "Sent
One" required, an Apostleship demanded, one to go out to fulfil a
prophetical ministry and work in an apostleship, being sent. "The
Spirit of the Lord is upon me," said the great Sent One later,
"because He hath anointed me to proclaim: He hath sent me."
Now here you have right in the centre a prophetical word. Some have,
I think quite justifiably, made Isaiah the highest of the prophets
because of the revelation of the Christ which He was permitted to
give, or which God gave through him; but the phase here is
undoubtedly a type of the "prophesorial" work of the Lord Jesus. His
ministry is a "Sent One," a prophet; and as this prophet of the
Great Prophet, this one who is included in the prophetic or
prophesorial ministry of the Greater Who was to come later, of Whom
he prophesied, as he was before the Lord, the Glory of the Lord
fills the house to create and to establish this prophetic ministry.
Now the Lord Jesus is here foreshadowed in His prophesorial ministry
or office, the "Sent One," the Apostle, God's Apostle, and in this
coming forth out from the Father of which we read so much and so
often speak, "I came forth out from God." "I came out from the Father." "God so loved that He gave" - here is the Gift, the
Sent One of God. On the ground of His having come forth from God to
declare the counsel of God, and to reveal the mind of God, and to
draw men back to God, as well as to warn men of the judgments of
God, upon this work of a prophet the glory of the Lord is seen
filling the House. Now you see this three-fold phase when you get to
the New Testament, which is the counterpart of this Old Testament
type.

You notice that in the mount of transfiguration the Saviour is in
the presence of His atoning and mediatorial work; for why was He
there in the mount? Well He was being spoken to, and having
communion concerning His exodus, His going out, which He was shortly
to accomplish at Jerusalem. He was in the mount concerning this
great work which He was going to accomplish by the exodus of the
Cross, and the passion, taken into the Ascension, and through the
Ascension into the glory. And when this work of the cross is nearest
and most real and accepted anew by Him in the mount, confirmed and
ratified by Him before God and the heavenly witnesses, the glory of
the Lord breaks forth upon Him and is manifested in Him and through
Him. There it is. We need not stay, for we have already said what is
to be said about the mediatorial glory of the Saviour.

Thus the second in the New Testament is the Ascension, the King of
Glory entering in; this is the sovereign, the monarchical. Then
Pentecost is the prophetical, or apostolic - the sending of those in
like manner as He was sent. "As the Father hath sent me, even so (in
like manner) I send you." And as He is now thrusting out His church,
His Body, Christ corporate, Christ representative, the going out
into the apostolic, the prophetical ministry, to speak of Him and
for Him, to exhort, and to warn, and to entreat - the Glory of God
is there.

Now, beloved, this is all so clear and patent, we see the underlying
truth or ground-work of the Glory of God. But what I want you to
notice is that in each of these cases there is the relationship to
the cross - the death, the resurrection and the ascension. When
Moses went into the mount to receive the pattern, in order to carry
it out, in order that the Glory of the Lord might be revealed,
before he ascended that mount he built an altar at its foot,
and offered a sacrifice before he went up. Here is Calvary in the
Ascension, in the heavens, that the pattern of the Church might be
revealed. The cross is basic to the manifestation of the heavenly
pattern, and the breaking forth of the heavenly glory.

When Solomon dedicated the temple the altar was there. You
remember, the sacrifice was offered, and he knelt by the altar and
presented it to God and the glory broke through, but the revelation
had come from the heavenlies. The three things are always there -
the Cross, the Resurrection, the Ascension. In Isaiah it is all too
patent. "Woe is me, for I am undone," then the cherubim took a live
coal from the altar; here is this coal soaked in blood and
permeated with fire. This is the cross that alone makes this
ministry possible, and through this ministry makes possible the
manifestation of the glory of God. In the New Testament we see that
the cross is associated immediately with the mount of
transfiguration. The cross is also at Pentecost. Listen to Peter's
sermon and see if it is not there; and we shall recognise that it
was upon this spiritual recognition and entry into the meaning of
the cross that the glory broke forth at Pentecost. The crucified
Christ had now been revealed to them in all the meaning of His
Calvary work. There was a time when they could not understand and
appreciate that. They said, "Far be it from thee Lord. This shall
never come to thee. If this happens then that is an end of
everything. There is no hope at all if you go up to Jerusalem and
fall into the hands of wicked men." They could see nothing beyond
that; but now they had got beyond that, and they saw the cross was
everything in the risen Christ. And then in union with the ascended
Christ Who was received up into glory, then, on the ground of the
cross, and all its outcome, the glory broke through. You see that
these three things are there all the way through.

Beloved, in that coming again to be glorified in His saints it will
still be the cross, it will still be on the ground of the cross. But
this is the point - we can only share the glory as we have shared
the cross. The cross is there, and we can only share the glory as we
know Him in the power of His resurrection. We can only know the
glory as we have already been made to sit with Him in the
heavenlies. These three things, union with the crucified Lord, union
with the risen Lord, union with the ascended Lord, this is union
with a glorified Lord. And if there is to be any breaking forth of
the glory of God in us individually it must be as, firstly, the
cross does its work; then as He is Sovereign, and not only Mediator;
and then as we go out to fulfil His apostolic ministry, as "sent
forth" men - only so can the Spirit of Glory rest upon us. The
ascension glory is the indwelling of Christ by the Holy Spirit. He
has come forth in the person, of His Holy Spirit to indwell, and He
is the glory in the midst. Only on these simple, but fundamental
realities of union with Christ can the glory be. If He is to be
glorified in the midst of us corporately, it will be as we are
separated by the cross from all that which the cross condemns and
rules out; as we are joined in a personal testimony experimentally
to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus; and as we know what it is
with Him jointly to reign in life in the ascension power by the Holy
Ghost coming and indwelling us. We have made it our supreme ambition
and prayer that "I might know Him and the power of His resurrection,
and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made comformable to His
death." And thus we shall know Him now in His glory.

There are many phases of the practical application of this thing,
but the broad range of revelation will be enough, and other
applications may follow, if the Lord so leads. We have often said
much about this - that He might be allowed to take us into the death
of things, and of all that we are, in order that He might be
glorified in a testimony to His resurrection in us, and in them.
This is the ground of the glory. If we suffer with Him, we shall
reign with Him. And that must begin now, because we have got to have
an earnest of our inheritance - to know Him as Elisha knew His
master Elijah, who went up into the glory in the power of His
ascension. When the mantle fell (the type of the Spirit) upon Elisha
from his master as he went up into glory, this is a picture of our
relationship to our Lord, joined with Him ascended, by the falling
of His Spirit upon us, and the entering of His Spirit, into us - to
know Him in the fellowship of the Spirit, wearing His mantle. This
is the ground of the glory. May we know it. May it not be to you as
a beautiful objective mental vision, but a real practical
experience. The mediatorial, the sovereign, the apostolic Christ in
us fulfilling all those ministries of Saviour and Lord and Prophet
in us, and through us, so shall the glory be revealed. The Church -
His Body - is the instrument and sphere of this ministry. Christ
continues to manifest Himself as Mediator, Sovereign and Apostle in
and through His Body, and even so His glory rests upon and breaks
forth in this Temple as He is allowed so to do fully by each member
becoming incorporated in Himself as Saviour, Sovereign and Sent One.